The Freedom High School junior came in as the top seed in the 100-yard backstroke and admitted he felt the nerves during this morning's preliminaries.

After a sub-par morning swim that resulted in the seventh seed for the final, the target on Conzola's back was momentarily lessened -- that is until he swam a 48.80 to earn a first-place finish in the backstroke during the evening's finals at Bucknell University.

The target has been overshadowed by gold.

"Honestly, I hate being the top seed," Conzola said. "I psych myself out and I think that's what happened in the morning. I had a pretty awful morning and came back at night knowing I couldn't do much worse and I had nothing to lose, so I went out there and gave it all I had.

"It turned out pretty well."

Conzola, who finished seventh in the same event last year, gives Freedom back-to-back gold at the state championships. Seth Watlington placed first in last year's 100 breaststroke.

Conzola came into the weekend as the top dog at 49.21 but faltered in the morning at 51.10, earning the second-to-last spot in the 'A' championship final heat.

He outlasted Hatboro-Horsham's Michael Thomas (49.11) to earn his third gold medal this season after winning the butterfly and backstroke at the District 11 Class AAA championships earlier this month.

"It means the world to know I'm the best at this event in the state," Conzola said. "It's just an honor, a great feeling."

The Patriots enjoyed their final night of competition as sophomore Sam Magnan brought home a silver medal in the 500 freestyle.

Seeded seventh at 4:36.84 coming into the championships, Magnan shaved more than six seconds off his time, clinching the top seed in the finals with a 4:30.07.

It proved to be vital added confidence for the night's race, where his 4:29.60 was only bested by North Allegheny junior Zachary Burger's 4:28.12.

"I was seventh coming in so I had to fight for a spot in the 'A' final, but then I got the top seed and knew I'd be racing for the gold," Magnan said. "I swam my best time this morning and came back tonight and even though I didn't win, I still medaled as a sophomore."

Kantz's 45.05 only trailed Upper Dublin senior Robert Bantley's time of 44.92

"I'm really frustrated. I was messing around in warm-ups and didn't do my full warm-up I normally do. ... I felt like I was good and didn't want to do too much.

"But this is going to make me work twice as hard. Next year when I come back, I'm not coming here to win, I'm coming here to basically humiliate everybody because I'm so mad and frustrated right now."

In the girls field, Nazareth sophomore Madeline Blair finished eighth in the 100 free with a 52.51 for her first state medal.

Blair, who placed third in the event at districts, qualified for the 'A' final with a 52.06 in the preliminaries good for the seventh seed.

"This is what I've been training for all year and I'm glad I could take the opportunity and run with it," she said. "I didn't swim my best in the final, but you can't take away the feeling of it; this is great."

Also locally, Freedom senior Scott DelFranco won the backstroke consolation final with a 51.25 to earn ninth place overall. Teammate Connor Harrigan was 21st in the 500 and the Pates boys 400 freestyle relay team was 24th overall. Helen Hsu was 24th in the 100 free, Shannon Howell finished 24th in the 500, while Carly DelFranco was 24th in the backstroke. Easton's Amanda Rosa placed 30th in the breaststroke.